Phantom Warmth
by knacc
Summary: Genos is feeling odd reactions in his barely functional core as Saitama carries his wrecked body away from the Sea King fight.


Genos approximates that it's been about half an hour since the Sea King fell. If he was in better shape, if his HUD wasn't just flashing error messages and alarms and if he hadn't been fading in and out of consciousness so frequently since he'd taken critical damage then he'd know exactly how much time had passed but in his current state, an approximation was the best that he could do. So far, he estimates that he's spent about twenty of those probable thirty minutes cradled in his sensei's arms, the constant bobbing motion and the rush of the tops of buildings streaming past his limited field of view informing him that Saitama is carrying him somewhere. Where exactly, he doesn't know but he's not worried about it; Sensei has him and that's good enough for him.

Genos is staring at Saitama and has been every time he's been conscious since the man picked him up. It isn't like he has much of a choice, what with his currently limited movement capabilities but if he's being honest with himself, there's not really anything else he'd rather be looking at right now. He's been watching as the ghosts of expressions dart across Saitama's generally blank face, sometimes anger and sometimes something darker, and Genos wants to ask why Sensei had undermined himself so completely but his mouth is currently misaligned so he stays quiet. He wishes absently that he still had any remaining functional sensors on his body, if only so that he'd be able to report to his journal what it felt like be carried like a fragile pile of scrap by arms powerful enough to crush meteors.

As they reach the edge of City Z, Saitama glances down and wrinkles up his nose. "Man, it is hard to look at you right now," he says conversationally, tone chipper in spite of the words he's saying.

Genos struggles to respond, to get his mouth to work properly. After a moment and a few false starts, he finally gets it into good enough alignment to be functional again. "I'm sor-ry, sensei. You could have just l-left me there… I'm sure the Hero Assoc-sociation would have collected me and brought m-me to Doctor Kuseno before too long."

Saitama shakes his head but doesn't look down at Genos again. "That's not what I meant, you idiot." Genos can see his face shift again, this time to a small frown with drawn eyebrows. Saitama sighs. "Just try and take better care of yourself, okay?"

Genos just stares at him for a moment, his mouth hanging open. Is Sensei… worried about me? His core is barely still outputting heat but at that thought, Genos could swear it suddenly grows warmer. Probably just a lingering sensation from his faulty human mind, he decides. "Y-yes, sensei."

Saitama shifts Genos up slightly, probably adjusting his hold on him. "Besides," he says, "what kind of teacher would I be if I didn't even help my student out, you know?"

Another warm surge from his core. "Thank you, sensei," Genos says, noting to his surprise that his vision has started to blur. For a moment, he thinks that it's started to rain again but quickly realizes that he's actually just started leaking fluids from his eye and that without functional eyelids and in his current position, all he can do is watch as the fluids cover over his one functional eye until they finally start to spill out. He hopes desperately that Saitama sensei will not notice once that starts to happens.

"Hey," Saitama says, a few minutes later, glancing down at Genos again and cringing, "dude, are you crying? There's no reason to cry, I'm sure the doc will fix you up in no time."

Genos lets out a little sigh, glad that Saitama is not the most perceptive of people when it comes to feelings. "It is just a malfunction," he says. "n-nothing to worry about. And speaking of Doctor Kuseno, if that's where you are trying-ing to bring me then I'd approximate that you miss-issed a turn a few miles back."

"Why didn't you tell me that sooner?" Saitama says, pulling a hard U and heading out towards the outskirts of the city.

"It's hard to tell-ell where we are going from this perspective," Genos says.

Saitama looks straight up for a moment as he runs before returning his head to it's normal position. "Okay fair," he says. After a few quiet minutes in which Genos just stares at Saitama and listens to how his strong heartbeat is lining up perfectly with his footfalls, his thoughts are interrupted by Saitama saying, "Do you want to to hold you different or something?"

"No," Genos nearly squawks, glad in that moment that he's not capable of blushing. There's no way he can explain to his sensei that he finds watching his expressions comforting so he just says simply, "I'm f-fine like this."

Saitama looks down at him and cocks his head to the side. "You're a weird guy, Genos. Anyone ever tell you that?" he says, a slight chuckle to his voice.

"I don't talk to many people so no," Genos says and Saitama starts to laugh, a nice, happy sounding laugh that almost seems out of place coming from him.

"Always so serious," Saitama says, a dumb looking smile on his face as he continues to laugh.

"I can try-y to stop," Genos says, glad that his sensei is happy but not sure how else to respond. Doctor Kuseno is also always telling him that he's much too serious for a boy his age so it must be true.

"Nah," Saitama smiles down at him, "you just wouldn't really be Genos otherwise, you know?"

Genos feels his core flare a third time as his face makes the best attempt it currently can at smiling. "Thank you, sensei."

"Don't thank me so much though. Just make sure to get fixed up as quick as possible. It's going to be really boring at home without you."

Home, Genos thinks, the phantom heat generation from his core feeling even stronger than any time before. "I will, sensei, I promise."

Saitama shakes his head and chuckles. And Genos doesn't know what he's doing, doesn't know exactly why he can make Saitama-sensei laugh but he hopes he can keep doing it for a long time to come.


End file.
